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But this style (or perhaps lack of style) couldn't last. In photographic terms, people started buying small cameras and electronic flash became available (both of which made informal portraits easy).
And in social terms, people became proud of their working class roots, men stopped wearing suits and people stayed away from professional portrait photographers.

Portrait photography then became the province of celebrity pro and gifted amateur photographers who produced a very wide range of styles, some based on the carefully crafted 1930's Hollywood film studio glamour shots, others based on documentary-style environmental portraits and of course with just about every in-between style too.

High street pro photography was pretty much in decline until the very end of the 20th Century, when high key lifestyle portraits were made popular by Venture. Love 'em or hate 'em, there's no doubt that this one Company has had a major influence on modern portraiture.

Just how important IS equipment?
The short answer to this one is that the amount and quality of your camera and studio equipment, and the size of your studio, will have an effect on the type of work you can produce, and it may also affect the size (number of people or size of set) that you can produce. It may also make things easier or more difficult for you BUT IT WILL NOT AFFECT THE QUALITY.

Take, as an example of another speciality, bird photography. Now, bird photographers today generally use very expensive, sophisticated equipment - 600mm (or longer) wide-aperture lenses on their top of the range 35mm or DSLR cameras, sophisticated metering systems, clever electronics to stabilise the images and reduce camera shake, radio, sound and beam triggers to fire the camera at exactly the right moment.... and this makes it possible for them to take photos that simply can't be produced with 'ordinary' camera equipment.

But if you take a look at the outstanding work of early pioneers such as Eric Hoskins, who had to make do with an old plate camera and who used to develop his plates in a nearby stream.... Lack of equipment didn't stop him from producing outstanding bird photos. What he had going for him was photographic expertise, commitment and a very real understanding of his subject.

And of course the same thing applies to portrait photography too. 10,000 sq feet of studio space, with a 40' - high ceiling and unlimited lighting equipment would be nice, but you can manage with a lot less!